Are CEOs with left-parted hair more successful?

PTIMay 12, 2008, 01.55pm IST

In pics: Hairstyles of CEOsNEW YORK: For those who believe only grey cells set apart leaders from the rest, there is another hair raising observation among corporate America that most of the successful CEOs including Pepsico's Indra Nooyi part their hair to the left, says US business magazine Fortune.

Legendary investor and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon of investment bank J P Morgan Chase are among the others joining Nooyi in the club of highly efficient CEOs who comb their hair to the left side.

In recent years, a pseudoscience has emerged around the theory that left-partedness signals leadership potential, while parting on the right suggest something a little off-kilter, Fortune said in a report published in its May 5 issue.

The magazine quotes John Walter, a systems engineer at New York City's Marymount Manhattan College as saying, its difficult for right-parters to be leaders.

Interestingly, a cursory look at the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies reveals only three among them of top 50 firms, part their hair on their right side. They are General Motors Rick Wagoner, AT&Ts Randall Stephenson and Sears interim CEO Bruce Johnson.

According to the magazine, Walter is credited with the theory (of parting hair to left) three decades ago, after he discovered that only a few American presidents parted their hair on the right.

Meanwhile, in the Fortune 500 there are highly successful chief executives who neither part their hair to the left or right. Such names include General Electrics Jeff Immelt, Goldman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein and Exxon Mobils Rex Tillerson.